Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com

ScienceDirect
Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia 8 (2016) 433 440

Florence Sustainability of Well-Being International Forum. 2015: Food for Sustainability

and not just food, FlorenceSWIF2015

Exploring the Italians' food habits and tendency towards a

sustainable diet: the Mediterranean eating pattern
a b c d
Ilaria Benedetti , Luigi Biggeri , Tiziana Laureti , Luca Secondi *,
a
Department of Management and Quantitative Studies, University of Naples Parthenope, Naples, Italy
b
Department of Statistics, Informatics, Applications G. Parenti, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
c
Department of Economics and Management, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy cDepartment
for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest systems, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy

Abstract

Over the last few years, the Mediterranean diet has received growing attention as it represents a sustainable diet in which nutrition,
local food production, biodiversity, culture and sustainability are strongly interconnected, with a low impact on the
environment.
By using repeated cross-sections of the ISTAT Aspects of daily-life survey over the period 1997-2012, we assess prevailing
food patterns among Italians and explore the socio-economic and lifestyle determinants of their adherence to the Mediterranean
diet.
2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Peer-review under responsibility of Fondazione Simone Cesaretti.

Peer-review under responsibility of Fondazione Simone Cesaretti
Keywords: Mediterranean Diet; Socioeconomic factors; pseudo-panel

1. Introduction

The Mediterranean Diet (MD) eating pattern, a collection of eating habits traditionally followed by people in the
various countries bordering the Mediterranean, was declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by
UNESCO in 2010 not only for its nutritional characteristics but also for the economic, environmental and socio-
cultural impacts in various areas of agricultural vocation and ecological interest (Germani et al., 2014).

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 0761 357417;

E-mail address: secondi@unitus.it

2210-7843 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of Fondazione Simone Cesaretti
doi:10.1016/j.aaspro.2016.02.040
434 Ilaria Benedetti et al. / Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia 8 (2016) 433 440

The traditional MD is characterized by a high consumption of vegetables, fresh fruit, legumes, cereals and a
moderate intake of alcohol as main source of fiber and antioxidants, with fish, nuts, and olive oil that ensure a high
intake of monounsaturated fatty acids, associated with a low intake of trans fatty acids from meat and sweets
(Trichopoulou et al. 2003; Bach-Faig et al. 2011).
Unfortunately, it seems that Mediterranean countries are replacing the traditional MD with other less healthy
eating habits and orienting their food choices towards products typical of the Western diet which is rich in refined
grains, saturated fats, sugars, red and processed meat, without taking into consideration health issues and
environmental sustainability (Trichopoulos and Lagiou, 2004; Leclercq et al., 2009; Laccetti et al. 2013).
There are several reasons why people keep on drifting from one dietary regimen to another although social and
cultural changes appear to have contributed to radical reversal in dietary habits in Southern European societies.
Numerous research studies focus on the factors associated with the adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Some
studies have emphasized the role of socioeconomic variables such as occupation, income and education (Scali et al.
2001; Lopez et al. 2009). In particular, several analyses have highlighted that people in the lower socio-economic
status groups are more likely to follow less nutritious diets (Darmon and Drewnowski, 2008; Katsarou et al. 2010).
Recent nutritional surveys carried out in Italy also confirmed that income and education are associated with a
greater adherence to Mediterranean style eating patterns (Bonaccio et al. 2012; Bonaccio et al. 2013). Indeed, the
expensive cost of MD could represent an economic barrier and could lead people to forfeit this eating pattern in
favour of less-expensive food products which enable them to save money but are however less healthy. On the other
hand low levels of education have been linked to poor adherence to Mediterranean style eating patterns.
According to these studies, it is clear that the analysis of factors influencing peoples dietary habits which is the
main object of this study, could help to promote the MD thus reaping benefits both in terms of public health and
environmental impact (Germani et al., 2014).
The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the socio-economic variables and adherence to MD
by using longitudinal data thus avoiding unobserved heterogeneity and the risk of spurious correlation.
The pseudo panel data set constructed from the annual Italian multipurpose survey Aspect of Daily Life carried
out by the Italian National Statistical Institute (ISTAT) enables us to assess the prevailing food patterns of the
Italians and explore the socio-economic and lifestyle determinants of their adherence to MD at regional level
bearing in mind the generational effects for the period from1997 to 2012.

2. Good for health, good for the environment

At first sight, the MD appears to be the best and most well-balanced diet to follow. Nutrition experts,
epidemiologists and researchers are strongly convinced that the Mediterranean eating pattern is extremely good for
ones health, as reported in scientific literature which links MD to a number of health benefits, including reduced
mortality risk and lower incidence of cardiovascular diseases (Trichopoulou et al. 2014).
Moreover, MD links environmental and human health. Indeed, the traditional MD may be considered a
sustainable diet due to various reasons such as great diversity that ensures food nutritional quality of diet and
biodiversity, respect for human nature and seasonality and low environmental impact because of low consumption
of animal products (Burlingame and Dernini, 2011).
Dietary patterns can strongly influence GHG emissions. Several studies have shown that meat products have the
most Global Warming Potential, while cereal products as well as fruit and vegetables have a lower impact on global
warming (Tilman and Clark, 2014).
An increasing number of studies investigate the environmental impact of dietary models. For example, Weber
and Matthews (2008) carried out a study in the U.S. which show that by eating local and seasonal food and
substituting meat with fish, eggs or pulses would lead to a reduction of CO2 emissions. Scarborough et al. (2012)
showed that by replacing meat with fruit, vegetables and cereals could reduce GHG emissions in the UK by up to
19%. Recently, Green et al. (2015) showed that if the average diets of UK adults conformed to WHO
recommendations, their associated GHG emissions would be reduced by 17 %.
Germani et al. (2014) compared the environmental impacts and the costs of the
current food consumption pattern of the Italian population and the Mediterranean
model in order to investigate its overall sustainability and observed that the MD
produces fewer environmental impacts than the current food consumption habits of the
Italian population.
 Ilaria Benedetti et al. / Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia 8 (2016) 433 440 435

3. Data

3.1. The ISTAT Aspect of Daily Life survey and the Italians adherence to MD

The data set used for the analysis of the Italians food habits and preferences was constructed from the annual
Italian multipurpose Aspect of Daily Life survey. This survey has been carried out annually by the Italian National
Statistical Institute (ISTAT) since 1993 as part of an integrated system of social surveys and collects detailed
information on a range of topics regarding individual and household daily life.
A specific section is devoted to the exploration of individuals food consumption habits in which the participants
are questioned about their frequency of intake of various types of food and they are asked to self-report the
frequency of these intakes in terms of times per day, week or less often. This method of gathering information
concerning food consumption and individuals life-styles can be included in the so-called Food-Frequency-
Questionnaire approach commonly used for constructing indexes of adherence to the MD (Goulet et al. 2003;
Panagiotakos et al. 2006).
We considered 15 repeated cross-sections of the Aspect of Daily Life survey for the period 1997-2012, except
for the year 2004 when the survey was not carried out by ISTAT.
Bearing in mind the Mediterranean pyramid recommendations (Bach-Faig et al. 2011) and the availability of
information across the various waves of the ISTAT survey (the number of food groups was equal to 5 in 1993 and
reached 15 in the 2012 survey), we identified the following 12 food groups to be analyzed for the period 1997-2012:
i) Pasta, bread and rice; ii) Leafy vegetables (i.e. spinach, salads); iii) Vegetables (i.e. tomatoes, eggplant, carrots);
iv) Fruit; v) Milk; vi) Fish; vii) White meat (turkey, chicken, rabbit); viii) Red meat (beef, veal, etc.); ix) Pork; x)
Processed meat (sausages, ham, salami, etc); xi) Eggs; xii) Dairy products (yogurt, fresh cheese, mozzarella, etc)
and cheese. In addition the types of oils and/or fats used for cooking and for dressing were considered by dividing
them into olive oil, vegetable oil and other fats, butter and lard.
We evaluated the Italians adherence to the MD by constructing the Mediterranean composite score which
summarizes the frequency of consumption of the 12 selected types of food for each individual included in the
survey. A score ranging from 0 to 4 (Table 1) was assigned to the frequency of consumption of each food component
according to the degree of adherence to the MD. Regarding the use of cooking oils and/or fats, the highest score
(equal to 4) was assigned to olive oil, 2 points were assigned for vegetable oils while a score equal to zero was
assigned for butter and lard both in the case of raw or cooked food.
The indicator can assume values between 0 (minimal adherence to the Mediterranean diet) and 56 (maximal
adherence to the Mediterranean diet). It is worth noting that a minimum cut-off age equal to 14 was considered when
computing the index.

Table 1. Scores for each food group

More than Once A few times Less than Never
Food group once a day a day per week once a week

Pasta, rice and bread 4 3 2 1 0

Leafy vegetables 4 3 2 1 0
Vegetables 4 3 2 1 0
Fruit 4 3 2 1 0
Milk 3 4 2 1 0
Fish 1 3 4 2 0
White meat 0 1 4 3 2
Red meat 0 0 2 4 3
Pork 0 0 4 4 3
Processed meat 0 0 1 4 3
Eggs 0 2 4 3 1
Dairy products and cheese 1 2 4 3 0
436 Ilaria Benedetti et al. / Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia 8 (2016) 433 440

3.2 Peculiarities and differences of the Italians in adhering to MD

The Italians appeared to have a moderately high level of adherence to the MD throughout the entire study period.
The overall average level of adherence to the MD is approximately equal to 73% (corresponding to a mean value of
the constructed Mediterranean score of approximately 41 out of a maximum value equal to 56), even if movements
and changes can be observed during the period 1997-2012 with decreasing values observed since the beginning of
the economic crisis. By distinguishing the Mediterranean score for gender, females proved to have a higher level of
adherence towards the MD than males.
Concerning differences across territorial areas, Figure 1 shows the classification of Italian regions into quartiles
in 1997 and 2012 according to the ordered distribution of the average level of adherence to MD. Therefore each
region is included in a specific quartile which contains 25% of the observations. It can be observed that Lazio,
Umbria and Puglia are the regions in the highest quartile both in 1997 and in 2012. In 2012 Abruzzo and Liguria
were also included in the 25% of the regions with the highest values of the Mediterranean score.

Adherence to MD (average value) in 1997: Adherence to MD (average value) in 2012:

(42.323,43.578] (42.483,43.068]
(41.657,42.323] 1.a (year 1997) (41.833,42.483]
(41.318,41.657] (41.432,41.833] 1.b (year 2012)
[39.746,41.318] [40.901,41.432]

Fig. 1. Adherence to MD: regional comparisons in 1997 (a) and 2012 (b)

As a first exploratory analysis we analyzed the distribution of the adherence to the MD throughout the entire
study period by means of selected socio-economic variables. For this purpose, we divided the levels of adherence to
the Mediterranean diet into three classes: Low for index scores up to 39 which represents the first quartile of the
distribution of the entire study period; Medium for scores between 40 (the 2 nd quartile) and 45 (the 3 rd quartile)
identifying the central part of the empirical distribution of the index; High for scores equal to or higher than 46.
Table 2 illustrates the distributional characteristics of the demographic and
socioeconomic variables according to the three classes of adherence to MD. The
education level was divided into two classes (up to 8 years of education and more than
8 years) while socioeconomic status was expressed as a composite relative indicator
(ranging from 0 to 1) obtained from a Multiple Correspondence Analysis which
considered five variables: dwelling ownership, whether one has spent a holiday period
of at least 4 nights in the last 12 months or not, number of cars owned,
 Ilaria Benedetti et al. / Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia 8 (2016) 433 440 437

judgment concerning the economic resources of all household members (categories ranging from "excellent" to
"totally inadequate").
Table 2 Classification of the adherence to MD: analysis for selected socio-economic characteristics (pooled data)
Adherence to MD
Low Medium High Total
Age (mean value) 43.14 47.28 51.46 46.98
Gender (females, %) 43.84 52.59 61.18 51.90
Educational level (%)
> than 8 years 39.05 42.24 43.88 41.66
Wealth status (%)
Low 24.87 23.08 21.74 23.32
Medium 58.36 59.71 60.89 59.57
High 16.77 17.20 17.36 17.11
Marital status (%)
Married 37.94 28.96 23.60 30.43
Unmarried 49.59 56.74 59.60 55.26
Divorced or widowed 12.47 14.29 16.81 14.31
Smoking status (%)
Never 49.33 55.25 59.22 54.38
Former smoker 20.33 22.33 23.78 22.06
Current smoker 30.34 22.43 17.00 23.57
Sport (%)
Continuously 18.65 17.31 17.49 17.75
Occasionally 13.35 12.40 11.27 12.43

People belonging to the top category of the MD adherence index show a higher mean age than individuals in the
other two classes (p-value of the ANOVA test=0.000) and are mostly women (61.18%). Moreover non-smokers tend
to adhere more to the MD (the percentage of non-smokers ranges from 49.33% in the lowest class to 59.22% in the
highest class) as well as unmarried people (approximately 50% in the lowest class and increasing up to 59.6% in the
highest class) and people with a higher socio-economic status.
Concerning education levels we observed an increasing percentage of individuals with at least 8 years of
education from the lowest (39%) to the highest (44%) class of the Mediterranean score.

4. Factors influencing the Italians adherence to MD

4.1 Pseudo panel construction and model specification

In this paper we suggest using a pseudo-panel approach according to which individuals sharing some common
characteristics, i.e. year of birth, are grouped into cohorts. The averages within these cohorts are then treated as
observations in a pseudo-panel data set. From a statistical methodological perspective this is equivalent to an
instrumental variable approach where the grouping indicators are used as instruments (Verbeek, 2008).
By focusing on individuals aged 14 or over and considering 15 repeated cross-sections, the data set includes
633,204 individual observations and followed the food consumption habits of 9 birth cohorts in the 19 Italian
regions considered in the survey (Piedmont and Valle dAosta are considered as only one region).
With the aim of ensuring that the cohort means of the variables based on the sample are reasonable estimates of
the population cohort variables, the construction of the pseudo-panel is based on the year of birth and the region in
which the respondents reside. Specifically, we defined nine age cohorts (1927, 1928-1935, 1936-1942, 1943-1949,
438 Ilaria Benedetti et al. / Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia 8 (2016) 433 440

1950-1956, 1957-1963, 1964-1970, 1971-1977, 1978-1983) and considered the 19 Italian regions included in the
ISTAT survey. For example, the first cohort is composed of all individuals aged between 14 and 19 in 1997 (and
therefore born in the period between 1978-1983) in region j. In 1998 this cohort will be aged between 15 and 19 and
in 2012 the age of this cohort will range from 29 to 34. In this way we constructed a series of means of the variables
included in the data set by considering the individuals belonging to the same birth cohort from 1997 to 2012. Our
choice of cohorts provides a balanced pseudo-panel of 171 groups over 15 years therefore resulting in 2,565
observations.
In order to analyze the factors influencing adherence to MD, the following model can be specified:

MDS gt gt
1xgt
2wjt
 gt g 1,...,171; t 1,...,15; j 1,...,19 (1)

where MDS gt is the average value of all observed MD scores (MDS) in group g in period t, xgt is the vector
which includes the average values of socio-demographic and economic characteristics observed for each group g in
period t, w jt is a vector of variables aggregated at regional level describing the socio-economic conditions of the
regions in which individuals reside and gt is the error term.

4.2. Results and discussion

The first three columns of Table 3 show the coefficients of equation (1) estimated by the pooled OLS, Random
Effect (RE) and Fixed Effect (FE) estimators.
The null hypothesis of non-significance of the individual effects (group specific effects) was rejected according
to the F-test results (Table 3) therefore confirming that a common constant term for all the groups cannot be
accepted and the pooled regression method is inappropriate. Furthermore, the calculated Hausman test statistics lead
us to reject the null hypothesis of no correlation between the individual effects and the regressors, suggesting that
the RE estimates were biased. Therefore we estimated Eq.(1) using a FE model, which enabled us to obtain
interesting results concerning the effects of the covariates on adherence to MD.
Table 3 Estimation results
OLS FE RE
Coef. Robust SE Sig. Coef. Robust S.E. Sig. Coef. Robust S.E. Sig.

Gender (ref. male) -0.325 0.476 0.772 0.413 * 0.470 0.405

Age 0.024 0.005 *** 0.058 0.026 ** 0.035 0.006 ***
Number of children -0.544 0.060 *** -0.432 0.077 *** -0.340 0.073 ***
Sport
Occasionally -3.225 0.361 *** -0.546 0.317 * -1.197 0.315 ***
Continuously 0.197 0.419 0.574 0.387 -0.073 0.370
Smoking status (ref. current smoker)
Never -0.300 0.364 2.018 0.317 *** 1.724 0.324 ***
Former smoker 0.743 0.494 1.398 0.382 *** 1.317 0.398 ***
Wealth status 0.596 0.603 -0.859 0.544 -1.265 0.535 **
Occupational Status
(ref. Employed)
Not in labour force 0.464 0.113 *** 0.264 0.150 * 0.421 0.143 ***
(housewives, pensioners,)
Job seekers -2.425 0.385 *** -0.609 0.445 -0.916 0.451 **
Total Years of education completed 0.209 0.024 *** 0.188 0.027 *** 0.216 0.027 ***
 Ilaria Benedetti et al. / Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia 8 (2016) 433 440 439
Economic crisis (ref. before 2007) 0.123 0.115 -0.619 0.372 * -0.170 0.110

Employment rate -0.067 0.005 *** 0.028 0.008 *** -0.028 0.007 ***
Intercept 42.610 0.527 *** 34.915 1.351 *** 38.324 0.527 ***
Years YES YES YES

F statistic for all i=0 22.45***

Hausman test FE vs.RE 137.61***

*
Significant at the 10% level. **Significant at the 5% level.*** Significant at the 1% level.

Firstly, gender and age are confirmed to be significant demographic characteristics related to the adherence to
MD. Specifically, females tend to follow MD more than males just as an increase in age leads to a greater degree of
adherence to MD, holding constant the other variables in the model.
Secondly, life-style variables have an effect on food diet patterns. Not smoking was found to be related with
healthier tendency towards food: in fact people who never smoked or stopped smoking appear to adhere more to
MD. Moreover, people who practice sport occasionally appear to adhere less to MD.
Thirdly, among the socio-economic characteristics the level of education proved to be a strong predictor of the
Mediterranean dietary pattern, in fact the more the number of years of education, the higher the level of adherence to
MD. Concerning occupational status, we found that people who were not part of the labour force (i.e. pensioners,
housewives, students) have a higher level of adherence to the MD, probably due to the greater number of meals they
consume at home compared to employed people.
Lastly, our results confirm that the adherence of Italians towards MD has decreased since the beginning of the
economic crisis in respect to their adherence prior to 2007.

5. Conclusions

Bearing in mind existing research, this paper aimed at investigating the role of education, occupation and socio-
economic status on adherence to MD in Italy by using a FE model and including other explanatory variables to
control for differences in socio-economic characteristics of the Italian regions.
This paper contributes to literature by presenting new empirical evidence on adherence to MD in Italy where so
far only cross-sectional studies have been carried out on this topic. We used a pseudo panel approach which is based
on cohort data, defined in terms of the year of birth and region of residence of each individual, obtained from the
ISTAT Aspect of Daily Life surveys for the period 1997-2012.
Of all the socio-economic characteristics, education proved to have a central role in determining adherence to
MD. The economic crisis has negatively influenced the Italian populations adherence to MD thus confirming that
the cost of MD could represent an economic barrier hindering the diffusion of this sustainable diet.

References

Bach-Faig, A., Berry, E. M., Lairon, D., Reguant, J., Trichopoulou, A., Dernini, S., Medina, F.X., Battino, M., Belahsen, R., Miranda, G., Serra-
Majem, L., 2011. Mediterranean Diet Foundation Expert Group, 2011. Mediterranean diet pyramid today. Science and cultural updates. Public
health nutrition 14(12A), 2274-2284.
Bonaccio, M., Di Castelnuovo, A., Costanzo, S., De Lucia, F., Olivieri, M., Donati, M. B., Moli-sani Project Investigators, 2013. Nutrition
knowledge is associated with higher adherence to Mediterranean diet and lower prevalence of obesity. Results from the Moli-sani study.
Appetite 68, 139-146.
Bonaccio, M., Iacoviello, L., de Gaetano, G., Moli-sani Investigators, 2012. The Mediterranean diet. The reasons for a success. Thrombosis
Research 129, 401404.
Burlingame, B., Dernini, S., 2011. Sustainable diets: the Mediterranean diet as an example. Public health nutrition 14(12A), 2285-2287.
Darmon, N., Drewnowski, A., 2008. Does social class predict diet quality? American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 87, 11071117.
Germani, A., Vitiello, V., Giusti, A. M., Pinto, A., Donini, L. M., del Balzo, V., 2014. Environmental and economic sustainability of the
Mediterranean Diet. International journal of food sciences and nutrition 65(8), 1008-1012.
440 Ilaria Benedetti et al. / Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia 8 (2016) 433 440

Goulet, J., Nadeau, G., Lemieux, S., 2003. Effect of a nutritional intervention promoting the Mediterranean food pattern on plasma lipids,
lipoproteins and body weight in healthy French-Canadian women. Atherosclerosis 170(1), 115-124.
Green, R., Milner, J., Dangour, A. D., Haines, A., Chalabi, Z., Markandya, A., Spadaro, J., Wilkinson, P., 2015. The potential to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions in the UK through healthy and realistic dietary change. Climatic Change 129(1-2), 253-265.
Katsarou, A., Tyrovolas, S., Psaltopoulou, T., Zeimbekis, A., Tsakountakis, N., Bountziouka, V., Gotsis, E., Metallinos, G., Polychronopoulos, E.,
Lionis, C., Panagiotakos, D., 2010. Socio-economic status, place of residence and dietary habits among the elderly: the Mediterranean islands
study. Public health nutrition 13(10), 1614-1621.
Laccetti, R., Pota, A., Stranges, S., Falconi, C., Memoli, B., Bardaro, L., Guida, B., 2013. Evidence on the prevalence and geographic distribution
of major cardiovascular risk factors in Italy. Public health nutrition 16(02), 305-315.
Leclercq C, Arcella D, Piccinelli R, Sette S, Le Donne C., 2009. The Italian National Food consumption survey INRAN-SCAI 200506. Main
results in terms of food consumption. Public Health Nutrition 12, 2504-2532.
Lopez, C.N., Martinez-Gonzalez, M.A., Sanchez-Villegas, A., Alonso, A., Pimenta, A.M., Bes-Rastrollo, M., 2009. Costs of Mediterranean and
western dietary patterns in a Spanish cohort and their relationship with prospective weight change. Journal of epidemiology and community
health 63, 920927.
Panagiotakos, D. B., Pitsavos, C., Stefanadis, C., 2006. Dietary patterns: a Mediterranean diet score and its relation to clinical and biological
markers of cardiovascular disease risk. Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases 16(8), 559-568.
Scali, J., Richard, A., Gerber, M., 2001. Diet profiles in a population sample from Mediterranean southern France. Public health nutrition 4(02),
173-182.
Scarborough, P., Allender, S., Clarke, D., Wickramasinghe, K., Rayner, M., 2012. Modelling the health impact of environmentally sustainable
dietary scenarios in the UK. European journal of clinical nutrition 66, 710715.
Tilman, D., Clark, M., 2014. Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health. Nature 515(7528), 518-522.
Trichopoulos, D., Lagiou, P., 2004. Mediterranean diet and overall mortality differences in the European Union. Public health nutrition 7(07), 949-
951
Trichopoulou, A., Costacou, T., Bamia, C., Trichopoulos, D., 2003. Adherence to a Mediterranean diet and survival in a Greek population. New
England Journal of Medicine 348(26), 2599-2608.
Trichopoulou, A., Martnez-Gonzlez, M. A., Tong, T. Y., Forouhi, N. G., Khandelwal, S., Prabhakaran, D., Mozaffarian, D., de Lorgeril, M., 2014.
Definitions and potential health benefits of the Mediterranean diet: views from experts around the world. BMC medicine 12(1), 112.
Verbeek, M., 2008. Pseudo-panels and repeated cross-sections. In: Mtys, L., Sevestre, P. (Eds.) The Econometrics of Panel Data. Springer Berlin
Heidelberg, pp. 369-383.
Weber, C.L., Matthews, H.S., 2008. Food-miles and the relative climate impacts of food choices in the United States. Environmental science &
technology 42, 35083513.